The truth about the Fox News Tea Parties
Astroturf
FreedomWorks Orchestrates ‘Grassroots’ Movements To Serve Dick Armey’s Corporate Clients
Excerpt:
ThinkProgress reported last week that corporate lobbyists are helping to orchestrate the anti-Obama tea party protests. These lobbying-run front groups, along with promotion help from Fox News, are organizing the tea parties by calling right-wing activists and asking them to organize. They are also coordinating conference calls among activists, writing press releases, providing sign ideas, building websites supporting the protests, and distributing talking points so that the protesters can stay on message.
Joe The Plumber Ghost Writer, Thomas Tabback, Speaks at Missouri Tea Party
Submitted by Marisa on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 22:04From the Kansas City Star:
Among the speakers was Thomas Tabback, a novelist and the co-writer of Joe the Plumber's book, "Joe the Plumber: Fighting for the American Dream."
Tabback implored the crowd to fight against a rising "socialist evil" and return the country to its historical greatness. He won the biggest reponse, though, on a double entendre.
"Kings destroy societies, and we got a whole slew of kings up there right now," Tabback said, pausing for effect. "And some queens."
The crowd roared, and at least one gave voice to the statement's implication, yelling out "Barney Frank!"
Tea Party Robocall Audio
Submitted by Marisa on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 21:36Over at the National Political Do Not Contact Registry, Shaun Dakin has managed to get his hands on audio from the millions of robocalls being sent out in advance of tomorrow's tea parties.
You can listen to it here: http://thinkdodone.typepad.com/ccd/2009/04/tea-party-robocall-audio-foun...
Don't let them fool you folks, this is a full on political operation with robocalls and all.
Tea Party Organizers Offer Cash in Exchange for Participation
Submitted by Marisa on Tue, 04/14/2009 - 21:31As reported by Fired Up! Missouri and Think Progress, Americans for Prosperity has teamed up with Heritage Foundation and is offering cash in exchange for participation in the events:
In a Facebook message today, Erik Telford of Americans For Prosperity told supporters, “I wanted to make you aware of an opportunity. Americans for Prosperity Foundation and Heritage Foundation have teamed up to launch the Stop Spending Our Future project, which offers four contests and $5,000 in prizes“:
Americans for Prosperity writes Facebook message offering financial rewards for publicizing tea parties.
Excerpt:
The right wing and Fox News are trying to paint tomorrow’s tea party protests as an organic uprising, when they are in fact being spearheaded by high-powered business interests. Now, organizers are doling out generous financial incentives to publicize the tea parties. In a Facebook message today, Erik Telford of Americans For Prosperity told supporters, “I wanted to make you aware of an opportunity. Americans for Prosperity Foundation and Heritage Foundation have teamed up to launch the Stop Spending Our Future project, which offers four contests and $5,000 in prizes“
The Tea Party Movement: Who's In Charge?
Excerpt:
Here is the organizational landscape of the April 15 tea party movement, in a nutshell: three national-level conservative groups, all with slightly different agendas, are guiding it. All are quick to tell you that the movement is a bottom-up affair and that its grassroots cred is real.
The Corporate Lobbyists Behind the Tea Parties
Excerpt:
Before any media covering these events accept the idea that this is just a grass roots outpouring of populist sentiment, they ought to take a look behind the curtain -- where Dick Armey is laughing and counting his cash.
Fox host: ‘It’s now my great duty to promote the tea parties. Here we go!’
Excerpt:
Fox News host Neil Cavuto regularly claims that when he aggressively advocates for the anti-Obama “tea party” protests on air, he is simply covering them as a journalist. But Stuart Varney, Cavuto’s fill-in host, admitted this afternoon that the the network is actually promoting the right-wing protests. After telling a guest that the tea parties were in protest to President Obama’s policies, Varney closed a segment by saying, “It’s now my great duty to promote the tea parties. Here we go!”
Frank Strategies and the Astroturf Tea Parties
Submitted by Marisa on Mon, 04/13/2009 - 17:41Yet more evidence is trickingling out that Wednesday's Tea Party's are nothing more than Astroturfed events organized by high profile DC lobbying groups, their consutlants and Fox News.
A couple of days ago I noticed a video popping up on all the conservative blogs that was made by Frank Strategies. So I decided to do a little bit of checking on what Frank Strategies was all about, and this is what I found:
Fox, Cut the Crap With this Non-Partisan, Grassroots Tea Party Talk
Excerpt:
Come on, now, Cavuto . . . Malkin . . . Beck . . . Hannity. Enough with the oh-this-is-a-non-partisan-event. Even your colleague Geraldo Rivera and Fox Regular Hater Ann Coulter admitted on Saturday night's (4/11/09) “Geraldo At Large” that this tea party deal is a movement by conservatives who are upset with Obama.